A Digital Journal - San Francisco Public Works
In the Works
December 2024
2024: Looking Back
and Moving Forward
Our mission at San Francisco Public Works is to make the City cleaner, safer and more beautiful – morning, noon and night.
It’s an ambitious undertaking and one we embrace with pride. This end-of-year, retrospective issue of In the Works provides just a snapshot of the work we did in 2024 – from delivering shelter for the unhoused and seismically retrofitting a towering peace pagoda to planting trees and cleaning the streets. Plus so much more.
As a 24/7 operation that touches every neighborhood, Public Works is on the front lines of tackling some of San Francisco’s biggest challenges and working with sister agencies and community partners to advance the City’s post-pandemic comeback.
From the entire team at Public Works, we hope 2025 brings you a bounty of joy, good health and passion for working together to make San Francisco an even better place to live, work and visit.
PUBLIC WORKS
BY THE NUM83R5
2024 -YEAR TO DATE
11,286
POTHOLES
FILLED
5,983
TREES
PRUNED
564
CURB RAMPS
CONSTRUCTED
635
NUMBER OF BLOCKS RESURFACED
25,685
TONS OF DEBRIS COLLECTED
January
Neighborhood Beautification Day
More than 125 community volunteers helped us kick off the 2024 season of Love Our City: Neighborhood Beautification Day in the Richmond District.
From the industrial reaches of the Bayview to a sprawling government campus on the Peninsula and a public golf course clubhouse on the western end of Golden Gate Park, a mass timber construction renaissance is taking root in the Bay Area – and San Francisco Public Works architects are helping drive the revival. Architects are tapping into a building technique that promises quicker turnarounds, produces more welcoming facilities and, perhaps most importantly, uses emission-storing materials to help combat global warming.
Green Infrastructure
Partnering
We hosted the sixth annual Collaborative Partnering Awards ceremony, which recognized nine City and County of San Francisco building and infrastructure projects that demonstrated collaborative partnering.
February
Chinatown Spruce Up
Public Works crews were out in force in Chinatown throughout the month of February for annual deep-cleaning and beautification operations during the Lunar New Year holiday season.
Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse
City officials, community leaders and golf enthusiasts gathered for the grand opening of the new Golden Gate Golf Course Clubhouse.
Storm Response!
The 6-plus inches of rain that fell in San Francisco kept our Operations teams busy handling storm-related incidents.
March
Arbor Day 2024
In just one day, hundreds of volunteers working alongside Public Works Bureau of Urban Forestry crews planted 100 new street trees in the City’s Tenderloin, Hayes Valley, Western Addition and NoPa neighborhoods in celebration of Arbor Day. We also held a community Arbor Day fair with plenty of hands-on activities, including building planter boxes and filling them with flowers and herbs.
Third Street Bridge Repaired
For the first time in a year, pedestrians regained full access to the historic Third Street Bridge after our trades workers completed critical repairs to the storm-battered span in time for the Giants pre-season home opener.
Upper Market Project Wins State Award
The streetscape changes along the stretch of Market Street between Octavia Boulevard and Castro Street brought welcome and meaningful improvements to this well-traveled corridor. They also landed a well-deserved recognition from the California State Association of Counties.
April
Public Works Week 2024
Public Works Week, an annual event where our department celebrates and showcases our employees and the work they do throughout the year, didn’t disappoint this year, with packed open houses, project tours, a recognition awards ceremony and more.
Mission Cabins
San Francisco opened an addition to its homeless shelter program – a small campus in the Mission District with 60 private cabins and onsite support services.
911 Call Center
In partnership with the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, one of the busiest dispatch centers in the country received a Public Works-led makeover.
May
Bay to Breakers Race Cleanup
As runners labored through the Bay to Breakers race, a contingent of Public Works street cleaners – clad in neon vests and armed with push brooms, shovels and rakes – stood at the ready to get the streets and sidewalks back in shape after the event.
Glass Shop
The department’s Glass Shop – a small but mighty operation – handles a variety of repair and installation jobs for a broad swath of City departments, from replacing mirrors at the San Francisco International Airport to adding anti-graffiti film to Rec and Park facilities. They gave us a glimpse into their work portfolio.
Folsom Street Makeover
Construction got underway on the Folsom Street Improvements Project, focused on making the busy South of Market corridor safer and more inviting for residents and visitors, with a reimagined roadway design, fresh landscaping and new street furniture.
June
Ocean Beach Sand Relocation
Public Works crews conducted the annual sand-moving operation at Ocean Beach involving massive excavators and bulldozers.
Pride Parade
Inspired by this year’s in-house theme, “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” Public Works got into the spirit of Pride Month, an annual tradition celebrated throughout June to highlight the contributions and history of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Neat Street
To promote neighborhood stewardship and boost civic pride, we launched our very own internet-based video game – capturing the spirit of maintaining, cleaning and greening San Francisco’s streets and sidewalks.
July
Mission Branch Library Renovation
Public Works is leading a project, delivered on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library, that will help restore the beloved Mission Branch Library – more than 100 years old – to some of its original glory. Work will add much-needed upgrades to transform the facility into a less cramped, more accommodating and more climate-resilient space for staff and patrons.
August
High Pressure Upgrades to Vital Firefighting Network
For the first time in nearly a century, San Francisco is overhauling a crucial part of its emergency firefighting apparatus – with the help of some Public Works engineering and design know-how.
Four times a year, Public Works engineer Alfonso Aguilera grabs a hammer and heads to the San Francisco Police Department’s firearms range for inspections, setting up a work plan for our trades workers to make needed repairs.
SFPD Gun Range
Paving
With the stars aligned, Public Works’ in-house street repair crews jumped into action and made quick work of an expedited roadway paving project in the Marina – earning praise from neighbors.
September
Harvesting Community at a Bayview Garden
Mary and Joel McClure, working with neighbors, transformed a derelict City-owned parcel in the Bayview into a flourishing community garden. This month’s Neighborhood Beautification Day volunteer workday brought them extra hands to help with weeding and pruning.
Golden Gate Park Gateway
When Public Works landscape architect Nicholas Ancel was working on the design for the new Golden Gate Park gateway at Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way, he found inspiration among ancient giants in the woods.
October
Graffiti Wipeout!
Scores of volunteers, armed with paint, rollers, brushes and a spirited determination, went to battle against the pervasive graffiti tags marring the Tenderloin.
Lightning Rod Project
Strapped into harnesses and attached to safety lines, Public Works electricians installed new lightning rods on the sloped metal roof of the City’s 911 Call Center.
Glen Park Staircase
A mundane, utilitarian public staircase connecting a quiet cul-de-sac with a busy street in the Glen Park neighborhood metamorphosed into a community treasure packed with beauty and meaning.
Polk Street Paving
Public Works crews kicked paving efforts into high gear, revamping City Hall’s front porch by putting down a fresh layer of smooth asphalt on Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place and making the roadway safer for people who travel along the high-profile block.
November
Japantown Peace Plaza
Work got underway to shore up Japantown’s venerable, five-tier pagoda and help protect it from the ravages of a major earthquake.
10 Years of Pit Stop
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San Francisco’s innovative Pit Stop public toilet program, launched by Public Works 10 years ago, has averaged one flush a minute. The program started with three locations in the Tenderloin and has since expanded to 30 locations in 13 neighborhoods.
December
Maiden Lane Pops with New Decorative Asphalt
Just in time for the holiday hustle and bustle, Public Works – in collaboration with San Francisco Planning and the Union Square Alliance – wrapped up work on a decorative asphalt project along Maiden Lane where curious tourists and enterprising shoppers stroll past high-end boutiques and storefronts on the pedestrian-only street.
Like gift wrapping on a present, a series of lines and loops now graces two blocks of the historic alleyway, which is bookended by Stockton and Kearny streets and located near Union Square.
Public Works landscape architects designed the pattern and our Bureau of Building and Street Repair crews repaved the roadway before a contractor installed the decorative asphalt. Our project and construction management teams shepherded the work through delivery.
Public Works, in partnership with the Union Square Alliance and San Francisco Planning, will be working with the community to deliver a long-term conceptual plan and vision for Maiden Lane in early spring of next year.
Taking San Francisco By Storm
A series of winter storms walloped San Francisco this month, knocking down trees and power lines, flooding streets and parks and surprising longtime City residents with an unprecedented pre-dawn tornado warning.
The worst of the tempests hit on Dec. 14, driven by the forceful combination of strong winds and heavy rains. Public Works’ Bureau of Urban Forestry crews responded to hundreds of service requests for downed trees and branches that blocked roads and sidewalks and landed on vehicles, buildings and overhead power lines. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.
The National Weather Service issued San Francisco’s first-ever tornado warning just before 6 a.m. on Dec. 14, awakening many slumbering residents with a better-pay-attention alert on their cell phones. The warning expired less than a half-hour later, with no touch-down reported in the City. However, fierce winds felled several trees, one after another, along the Bernal Cut that separates Glen Park from Bernal Heights.
Our tree crews were on the ground – and high up in wind-whipped bucket trucks – throughout the day and into the night, cutting down and removing storm-damaged street trees in neighborhoods across San Francisco. Cleanup continued in the days that followed.
Other storms rolled through the City, keeping our crews busy during the first weeks of winter. In addition to the arborists’ tree work, Public Works crews help keep the storm drains clear, mop up after localized flooding, make rain-related road repairs and address landslides. We also hand out free sandbags to San Francisco residents and businesses, with thousands distributed this month alone.
’Tis the Season
The gorgeous Christmas tree at the top of the grand staircase inside San Francisco City Hall didn’t get there thanks to elves. Public Works Bureau of Urban Forestry crews delivered the towering conifer to City Hall for the holiday season, where it serves as a popular backdrop for family photos and weddings amid the everyday workings of City government.
Tree-cycle
San Francisco residents can place unadorned Christmas trees curbside next to their Recology bins on their regular collection day between Jan. 2 and Jan. 17 to make sure they’re disposed of properly.
Recology will recycle the holiday trees for free. Here are the guidelines:
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Trees must be unadorned – remove all ornaments, tinsel, lights, nails and stands. Note that flocked trees cannot be recycled.
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Trees must be placed alongside your green composting bin on your regular refuse collection day. Recology will have dedicated trucks running the service route to pick up the holiday trees.
Please contact Recology if your tree is not picked up by the end of the day on your regular service day. If you miss your collection date, contact Recology by calling (415) 330-1300.
The collected Christmas trees will be transported to Recology’s Jepson Prairie Organics composting facility near Vacaville where they are fed into a grinder. The smallest pieces of ground trees will be combined with other compostable material – such as food scraps, sticks and leaves – and composted. Woody pieces will become part of the biofilter system at the composting facility. The program keeps about 300 tons of material out of San Francisco’s landfill each year.
“Christmas trees are an age-old tradition that symbolize joy, but once the trees come down after the holiday season, they should be disposed of properly, so they don't become a sidewalk hazard,” said Public Works Director Carla Short. “The tree-cycle program helps keep our neighborhoods clean and safe and keeps the trees out of the landfill by fully utilizing them in the composting process.”
Public Works Director Carla Short names Julia Laue as San Francisco’s new City Architect.
Laue has been with the department for nearly 12 years, serving as Principal Architect and manager for the Bureau of Architecture. She oversees a staff of 65-plus that works on a variety of design projects, among them health centers, libraries, homeless shelters, transportation and public utilities facilities, recreation centers, police stations and more.
Laue is the first woman to serve as San Francisco’s City Architect, a role established in 1907 as San Francisco was rebuilding after the Great Earthquake and Fire in 1906.
New City Architect
Start Off the New Year Right: #LoveOurCity
The 2025 season of Love Our City: Neighborhood Beautification Day kicks off on Saturday, Jan. 18 – the first of 11 monthly events where community volunteers work alongside Public Works crews to green and clean our neighborhoods.
January’s event will be held in the Outer Mission, Excelsior, Crocker-Amazon and other District 11 neighborhoods. We’ll get the day started at 8:30 a.m. at James Denman Middle School, 238 Seneca Ave., before heading out to different worksites to plant trees, spruce up public landscaping, paint out graffiti and more.
We’ll also have free compost material on hand for people’s home gardens. Be sure to bring your own bucket.
We hope to see you there! And please be sure to register in advance online. More information on volunteer opportunities with Public Works can be found at sfpublicworks.org/volunteer or by emailing volunteer@sfdpw.org.